Thursday, December 31, 2015

Yesterday Hillary
Clinton gave a speech in Washington that included more pandering to Israel than any speech I've heard from any
American politician. It was endless. Israel is a brave democracy, a light unto the nations, a miracle, its “prowess
in war” is “inspiring,” and we must take
the US-Israel relationship to the next level.”[i]

I can't imagine what “a next level” would look like.

In her speech, she never mentioned the “occupation.” It just
does not exist and settlements don't matter.
She would be great as President of Israel. Other than not knowing the difference between
Hamas and ISIS, she is highly qualified and she would love it. She loves policies in Israel that she claims
to hate in America. For instance, she ridicules Donald Trump's wanting to put a
ban on Muslims coming into the U.S., while such is standard practice in
Israel. I have a friend who was denied
entrance into Israel last year simply because he was not Jewish and had a
camera. If it is wrong, racist and xenophobic to do so here, why is it
acceptable in Israel? She condemns
Donald Trump's proposal for a wall on our border with Mexico and praises every
wall Israel has ever built on its own land, on borders and on land belonging to
others, especially those walls that seal out Palestinian and seals in their
water.

Benjamin Netanyahu would welcome her as his president. They
have been swooning over each other for years. She supports everything he does
even when it puts American security in jeopardy. Iran, she says, not Israel, but Iran, is
guilty of bad behavior. She seldom
spells out just what Iran does to be so bad, other than supporting Hamas and
Hezbollah, both of whom exist to protect its citizens from Israel's aggression.

She brags that, as Secretary of State, she undermined the Goldstone Report, the United Nations
Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza bombardment of Gaza during December 2008 and
January 2009:

The
Goldstone Report accused Israel of numerous war crimes and violations of
international humanitarian
law. Israel committed “a grave breach” of the Fourth Geneva Convention in its intentional targeting of
civilians... It also documented the Israeli military's use of chemical weapons like white phosphorus on
civilian areas, including hospitals.

Clinton
emails reveal that the United Nations Human Rights Council, under heavy
pressure, postponed
consideration of the Goldstone Report from October 2 until March 2010... An email from Harold Koh, Legal adviser to
the Department of State demonstrates that the U.S. State Department self-consciously and
successfully obstructed endorsement of the Goldstone Report by the UNHRC.[ii]

She looks at Israel with total tunnel vision. She sees
nothing in the summer of 2014 as Israel again attacks Gaza with 6000 airstrikes
in 51 days, killing 2400 people including over 500 children. Her Israeli heroes
flatten homes, destroy power and sewage plants and bombs U.N. shelters and all
she has to say is that the people of Gaza brought it on themselves. No other
nation on the globe gets such a pass. A
Palestinian kid throws a rock and spends years in prison while Israeli settlers
who firebomb homes and kill innocent people continue to roam around free.
Israel builds walls, checkpoints, settlements and Jewish only roads and all she
can say is that Israel wants peace. Of
course, the fact that her political campaign is bankrolled by a Zionist
billionaire has no influence on her political decisions. The fact that Israel's
occupation of West Bank, Golan Heights and Jerusalem has been declared illegal
under international law for years, well, she chooses to ignore that, too.

Hillary Clinton, in younger years fought for civil rights,
against the war in Vietnam and specialized in children's rights. Then she
decided to run for the senate in the heavily Jewish populated State of New
York. Suddenly, it no longer mattered to her that the Israel she supported
committed state terrorism, persecuted an entire people, stole its land and
water, killed its people, the victims became the “terrorist.”

If Israel is looking for a president who wears blinders and
is comfortable with half-truths, then they could not find a better candidate
than Hillary Clinton. Of course, no one expects her to be elected president of
Israel. In fact, she may well wind up being president of the United
States. I just want us to be aware of
her sell out to militant Zionism, its racism and all the pain she excuses on
their behalf.

Thomas Are

December 31, 2015

[i]Gideon
Levy, Hillary Clinton Is No Friend of Israel. Mondoweiss, August 11,
2015

Thomas L. Are

I preached for forty three years in the Presbyterian Church before retiring. If anyone would ever refer to me as a Liberation Theologian, I would be pleased. I started blogging several years ago to express my political and religious concern for justice, especially justice for the Palestinians.